Abdul Samad Rohani

BBC and Pajhwok Afghan News

June 7 or 8, 2008, in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan

Rohani disappeared on the evening of June 7. His body was found with multiple
bullet wounds the next day in a cemetery near Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand
province, according to local and international news reports. Rohani was the
Helmand reporter for BBC's Pashto service and contributed to the Pajhwok Afghan
News agency, the country's largest independent news service.

A native of Helmand, Rohani had distinguished himself as a
well-connected and eloquent reporter, according to colleagues. Rohani, 25, the
oldest son in a family of seven children, was married with two children.

Pajhwok Director Danish Karokhel, who reviewed the
reporter's phone records and laptop, said he believed Rohani was killed for his
reporting on drug trafficking and its possible ties to government officials.

Helmand province, which lies along the restive border with
Pakistan, is home to Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, as well as a flourishing
opium trade. Some Afghan news reports quoted an unidentified government
spokesman as saying that Rohani was killed by Taliban militants. A Taliban
spokesman told The Associated Press that his group was not behind the
reporter's death.